Digital solutions can lower costs and improve the patient experience in health care. So why hasn’t digital technology revolutionized the industry? There are hurdles: hesitant doctors, archaic infrastructure, disorganized data and patients worried about privacy. Add in the tech proclivity for rushing into new endeavors, and conservative payers and providers who want to stick with what they know, and you’ve got the recipe for a slow-moving, difficult process. This special report from the Boston Consulting Group explores the barriers to a happy marriage between digitization and health care.
Digital solutions have the potential to transform the health care industry in meaningful ways.
Navigating health care is complicated and frustrating for nearly everyone involved, and digital solutions have real potential to change that. The Harvard Business Review celebrated the changes that digitization might bring, saying, “Innovations in telemedicine will accelerate in poor countries where access and cost are critical issues. Such innovations can transform health delivery in rich countries.” Silicon Valley investors also seem to believe in digital health care solutions, as evidenced by their investments. Valuation of select health care start-ups has ballooned to the billions, including Oscar Health at $3.2 billion, Babylon Health and One Medical at $2 billion, and Devoted Health at $1.8 billion.
Unfortunately, the promise of digital innovation in health care hasn’t yet come to fruition. So far, digital solutions have been applied in a patchy network of individual apps, so...
Ania Labno, Matthew Huddle, Tom Retelewski and Josh Kellar are professionals with the Boston Consulting Group. Victoria Borland provided additional knowledge regarding digital implementation.
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